High School Summer Reading Guide:
Summer reading is one of essential elements of what we are trying to accomplish in the
English Language Arts department. We are trying to encourage our students to have a lifelong
love of reading and learning. We recognize that books assigned during the school year have to
compete with the pressures of a rigorous academic and extracurricular life here at SMA.
Summer is the perfect time to enjoy a fine example of literature or history in a friendly, familiar,
and family filled environment. Therefore, we have chosen books which reflect our desire to have
students love and appreciate their summer reading experience while reading great works that
are not only age appropriate and accessible but are also books they will enjoy reading. Too
often we expect reading to be a chore because of the pressures of the school year and the
intensity of the text itself. In contrast, summertime is an opportunity to relax with a book and
have the chance to interact with it in a personal way. To develop a love for reading, we must
embrace the idea that we can read for pleasure and the books we choose for summer reading
reflect our desire to build interest in reading through great, and more importantly, enjoyable
stories.
Summer Reading:
Reading proficiency and comprehension is a major element of what we are trying to
accomplish in the English Language Arts classes. We want to encourage our students to be
lifelong readers and learners. The literature assigned during the school year has to compete
with a rigorous academic and extracurricular schedule. Therefore, summer is the perfect time to
enjoy a fine example of literature or history in a friendly, familiar, and family-filled environment.
To advance this goal, we have chosen books which reflect our desire to have students value
and appreciate their summer reading experience. We encourage parents or guardians to be
actively involved in this reading process.
Use the questions as a guide for writing your responses. Please write​ one response
paper for each of the books you read​. You need to read the two required texts and choose
one of the additional texts provided below. By the end of the summer, you should have read a
total of three books.
There are three questions for you to answer and you should anticipate writing a
minimum of ​200 words for each question.​ Your responses should be typed and printed at the
start of the school year. Your responses will be due at the beginning of your ​second meeting in
your English class.​ Since the purpose of the response paper is to help you during class
discussion of the text, reference the text often in your responses. Use standard MLA formatting
for textual references.
The summer reading assignments will count for your
first assignment grade of the school year.
****Note:​ Do not use Cliff Notes, Sparknotes, movies, or any other substitute/aid materials.
SMA’s desire is for each student to enjoy these works and appreciate their role in history.
Please use the ISBN number to access the appropriate versions.
Consider the following questions when writing your written response for each book that
you read this summer:
1: What is the main idea or theme of the book? In other words, define the moral or the
message of this text. Why is important that someone of your age group read this
material? Choose one brief passage that seems to exemplify this idea and provide a few
key details.
2: What did you learn from this book? How do you anticipate this lesson being valuable
to your academic career? Provide specific evidence from the text to support your
statements.
3: As you read the book, how did it change a view, idea, or understanding you previously
held? Describe how it revealed something new to you (whether it is about the period
covered in the book or yourself).
If this text did not change a view that you currently hold, why do you agree with the
themes and ideas presented in this piece of literature? Do you think this piece of
literature should be required for everyone to read? Why or why not?
Ninth Grade:
Ninth Grade (Generals)
Required Reading
Ninth Grade (Honors)
Required Reading
Additional Reading for Ninth
Grade
A Tale of Two Cities
(Charles Dickens)
The Abolition of Man
(C. S. Lewis)
Of Mice and Men
(John Steinbeck)
The God Who is There ​(Francis
Schaeffer)
C.S. Lewis for the Third
Millennium: Six Essays on the
Abolition of Man
(Peter Kreeft)
Pride and Prejudice
(Jane Austen)
Tenth Grade (Generals)
Required Reading
Tenth Grade (Honors)
Required Reading
Additional Reading for Tenth
Grade
That Hideous Strength
(C.S. Lewis)
A History of the English Church
& People
(​Venerable Bede)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
​(Victor Hugo)
The Jungle Book
(Rudyard Kipling)
Tenth Grade:
Le Morte d’ Artur
(Sir Thomas Malory)
Two Lives of Charlemagne
(Einhart & Notker the
Stammerer)
Joan of Arc
(Mark Twain)
Moby Dick
(Herman Melville)
Eleventh Grade:
Eleventh Grade (Generals)
Required Reading
Eleventh Grade (Honors)
Required Reading
Additional Reading for
Eleventh Grade
Anthologized Sermons, ​(George
Whitefield)
Anthologized Sermons, ​(George
Whitefield)
Murder on the Orient Express,
(Agatha Christie)
Anthologized Sermons,
(John Wesley)
Anthologized Sermons,
(John Wesley)
The Sound and the Fury
(William Faulkner)
Grapes of Wrath
(John Steinbeck)
Twelfth Grade:
Twelfth Grade (Generals)
Required Reading
Twelfth Grade (Honors)
Required Reading
Additional Reading for Twelfth
Grade
The Alchemist
(Paulo Coelho)
The Alchemist
(Paulo Coelho)
Frankenstein
​(Mary Shelley)
Brave New World
(Aldous Huxley)
Brave New World
(Aldous Huxley)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
(Oscar WIlde)
The Canterbury Tales
(Geoffrey Chaucer)